IoS Christmas Appeal: Silent shame of domestic violence in Britain

One in four women will be abused by a partner. Many are failed by the police, and now cuts to services are leaving women and children open to more attacks. As The IoS launches its Christmas appeal, Emily Dugan and Jane Merrick report on the dangers women still face

Emily Dugan

Emily Dugan is Social Affais Editor for The Independent, i and Independent on Sunday. She was previously a news reporter for The Independent on Sunday. Her investigations into human trafficking have twice been awarded Best Investigative Article at the Anti-Slavery Day Media Awards and her human rights journalism was shortlisted for the Gaby Rado Memorial prize at the 2012 Amnesty Media Awards. Emily is on sabbatical until March 2015

One in eight emergency phone calls made to the police relate to serious domestic violence incidents, new figures show today. In some areas, as many as one in five serious 999 calls are connected to domestic abuse, a survey of police forces has revealed.

The statistics show the chilling levels of domestic violence
that women in Britain continue to face. Experts say these represent
the tip of the iceberg, since many are never reported. A quarter of
women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and every
week two women are killed by a current or former partner. Three
women a week kill themselves as a result of domestic abuse – and
another 30 try to.

The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the Independent
Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating 11 cases
around the country where serious failings are alleged in the police
response to domestic violence. The domestic violence charity Refuge
– which The IoS is supporting for this year's Christmas appeal – is
working to prevent more women from adding to these grim
statistics.

Sandra Horley, the charity's chief executive, said: "We hold
ourselves up as the pinnacle of the developed world and yet, in
Britain today, thousands of women and children are brutalised and
terrorised in their own homes. And services to support them are
vanishing."

The figures for emergency calls, published today by Labour to
highlight International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
Women, cover "grade 1" incident 999 calls – those that require an
emergency response – that forces in England and Wales responded to
between April 2010 and August 2012. Of 20 forces that responded, an
average of 12.5 per cent of these calls were related to domestic
violence. The highest rates were recorded in Merseyside, with 21
per cent, Lancashire and West Mercia, both with 18 per cent, and
South Yorkshire and Humberside, both on 16 per cent.

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, an
estimated 1.2 million women experience domestic abuse every year, a
figure that includes verbal as well as physical abuse. It was
estimated that last year, about 392,000 of these incidents were
violent, a figure 35 per cent higher than in 2010.

Among the casualties was Sabina Akhtar. The 26-year-old had
warned the police that her husband, Malik Mannan, 36, was planning
to kill her two months before he burst into their Manchester home
and stabbed her through the heart.

She explained to officers in graphic detail how Mannan had
assaulted her 25 times, throttling her and saying: "One day I will
kill you." But he was arrested and released without charge. After
he repeatedly breached his bail conditions to threaten Ms Akhtar,
she made a second terrified call to the police and he was
re-arrested. Again he was questioned and released without charge.
Four days later Ms Akhtar was dead.

Earlier this month, a coroner ruled that "serious and
significant failings" by the police, social services and the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS) "possibly contributed" to Ms Akhtar's
death in September 2008.

Every year, IPCC investigations show forces making the same
mistakes, repeating failings in the most basic police duties.
Amerdeep Somal, the IPCC's commissioner with lead responsibility
for gender abuse and domestic violence, said: "Sadly, I have seen
through my work that [police] protection is not always provided. It
is a great scar on our collective conscience when a woman's fears
are not taken seriously and she is not given the protection that
she deserves.

"If we are to see any fall in domestic violence deaths, year on
year, it is crucial that the police and other agencies take
domestic violence seriously – by listening to the concerns of the
victims and taking appropriate, timely action. It is not enough
that police officers should simply take a report and then file it,
leaving a woman to her often inevitable fate."

Dr Reaz Talukder, Ms Akhtar's uncle, is clear that while Mannan
killed his niece, the police must also take responsibility for
their failure to help. He said: "The police knew that her husband
was a violent and dangerous man. And still they did not protect
her."

Professor Carol Hedderman, a criminologist at the University of
Leicester, said: "When the police respond, they respond per
incident. It's like they've got collective Alzheimer's and they
have no institutional memory."

Detective Superintendent Tim Keelan, from Merseyside Police's
Public Protection Unit, said that the police were trying to make
things better. He said: "Domestic abuse is a terrible and damaging
crime and one that the police and other agencies out there are keen
to reduce as much as possible."

The CPS also comes in for criticism over the lack of convictions
against perpetrators. But this year there have been some
improvements. In cases of domestic violence referred to
prosecutors, the conviction rate last year was 73 per cent compared
with 69 per cent in 2007-08. Tomorrow the CPS and the Association
of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) are issuing a checklist for
domestic violence cases to all CPS and police staff. It will
remind them to make sure they've collected all possible evidence,
such as recorded 999 calls and photos.

Professor Sylvia Walby, a sociologist specialising in
gender-based violence at Lancaster University, was surprised by the
apparent rise in reported domestic violence. She said: "More or
less every year for the last 20 years there was a small but steady
decline [in the number of people reporting domestic violence], but
last year that seemed to stop. We have a project now to try to find
out why."

If the rise is more than a statistical anomaly, then the
recession, as well as cuts to services that could help keep women
safe, may hold possible explanations. Many of the recent local
government cuts fell on relatively new services put in place to
protect women and children.

A recent Freedom of Information request found that councils in
England and Wales cut annual spending on services aimed at helping
vulnerable women – such as refuges – by an average of £44,914 each
last year. In London alone, the budget for refuges and domestic
violence services has been slashed by £1.9m.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "Domestic
violence is a hidden emergency for over a million women in Britain
every year who call out for urgent help but are not properly heard.
In government Labour made tackling violence against women and girls
a priority. Measures such as specialist domestic violence courts,
specialist police units and prosecutors, and partnerships with
councils and housing to support victims all helped to tackle
incidents of domestic violence. But a lot of that work is under
threat."

Services such as those provided by Refuge are in more demand
than ever. Every day the charity supports some 2,000 women,
providing everything from safe houses to advisers who help them
navigate complicated police and legal systems. Now they are
appealing for help to keep their services going.

"Refuge's services are in constant demand," Ms Horley said.
"Thousands of women and children live in fear. We have to turn them
away because there simply aren't enough bed spaces."

'Without skilled professional help it's a
nightmare'

Alice, from the Home Counties, was helped by one of Refuge's
Outreach Workers. Names have been changed...

"I first called the police in 2009 when Matthew first attacked
me at home in front of the children. The police response was pretty
poor. I was still breast-feeding my son Paul and I had a young
daughter Sophie, and I said 'I'm not going to leave'. I remember
feeling that I just couldn't. It was abject fear that held me
there, but once I'd said that, that was it. They were out of there
and they didn't want to know. One of them said sarcastically when
they left 'I suppose we'll see you again soon then'.

We got together after a whirlwind romance. I wasn't interested
at first but he pursued me and flew me around the world and it
seemed romantic. I'd only known him a few months when he asked me
to move in. the violence started gradually. It's like putting a
frog in cold water and heating it up - if it had been boiling at
the start I'd have jumped out.

Last year there were two serious physical attacks in quick
succession and they were both in front of the children. I'm
normally quite a capable person. I've had good jobs and I can be
quite successful so I should've been able to stop this, but I
couldn't.

The first was in November on Sophie's birthday. Matthew was
looking after the children in the morning before her party while I
sorted the food. I said they should stay local but he wanted to
take them to a pantomime. It escalated into an enormous physical
attack. He screamed at me 'you can't control me' and the kids were
saying 'Daddy don't shout'. I went to leave the room, and he
started slamming the door against me with the kids in there with
him. All I could think was 'I can't get to them'. I was terrified
he'd do something to the kids. When I eventually got back into the
room I grabbed Sophie and he immediately grabbed Paul, who was
screaming. I was so frightened and when he put him down I was just
holding them both on the floor. That's when he started kicking
me.

I struggled to pick them up and Matthew knocked Paul out of my
arms. When he got up he put his hands on his hips and said: 'daddy,
stop being naughty'. No child should ever have to say that.

We left behind Sophie's dress and birthday cake when we fled, so
I decided to go back and get them. I went upstairs to the bedroom
and he was so angry that his hand was shaking and hot tea was
sloshing everywhere. He threw me across the room and I hit my head
on the bed and fell on the floor. Then he put me against the wall
and put his hands on my throat and was threatening me. I remember
thinking 'I'm going to die, but at least the kids won't see it'. I
don't know why he stopped. Then I went to my friend's house and did
Sophie's birthday as if nothing had happened.

The next day I rang my mum and dad and told them what had
happened. The divorce was already going on and my solicitor told
him he had to leave the house, but he refused. So me and the kids
were sleeping on a friend's floor while he slept in a £1.5m
house.

Eventually we went back to the house on the understanding that
my mum could be there too. On New Year's Eve I was about to take
the children out to a sleepover when he said 'you have to tell me
where you're going'.

Sophie was in the bath, which had a glass shower screen. I was
half undressed and he flung me by the bra strap into the screen,
which slammed into Sophie. He walked out of the room so I ran into
the bedroom and dialled 999 but the phone was dead. I discovered
later he'd pulled the cable out. We got in the car and that was
it.

I went to the police station at 9am on New Year's Day. That
evening they arrested him. I had to make sure they weren't going to
release him overnight as on a previous occasion they had released
him without charge at 1am and we'd had to flee to a hotel.

You have to be so persistent to get something from the police.
After he was charged and bailed he was entitled to come back to the
house to collect his things. While he was there I went to the key
safe and realised he'd taken the house keys. I told the police and
they just said they didn't have the power to search him. They let
him drive off with the keys. The next day I paid to have the locks
changed, potentially criminalising myself, in order to stay
safe.

Shortly afterwards I was put in touch with a Refuge community
worker, who said to come and see her. It was such a relief. I felt
I could sit there and let it all come pouring out. It helped me to
see it was an absolute pattern of abuse.

This summer in court eight incidences of domestic violence were
put to him. He was found guilty of all eight but he still kept
saying 'that didn't happen'.

He coached my daughter Sophie to make a malicious allegation
about a relative of mine. He tricked her to say the relative had
shown her naked pictures of women in a pornographic magazine,
recorded it and then called me up to say he was very concerned
about it. I was beside myself, terrified the police were going to
arrest the relative.

On advice from my Refuge outreach worker, we alerted police and
social services that a malicious allegation might be reported. She
got me to realise how dangerous he was and she advocated to the
police on my behalf brilliantly, which gave me my sense of control
back. He's not allowed to see the children now .

It's impossible for a normal person to get the system to work
for them. With skilled professional help you can get the system to
work, but otherwise it's a nightmare."